Welcome back to the Aliventures newsletter! Now that the summer's over, I'll be sending out an article every Monday as usual. If there's ever a particular topic or question you'd like me to tackle, just let me know.
Most novels are
written in either the first person ("I woke up one morning...") or the third person ("Sue woke up one morning...").
Some of those novels use multiple narrators: this is most common in third person novels, but some novels (particularly romance/YA) will use two or more first-person narrators for a split narrative.
Normally, all the narrators will be either third-person or first-person ... but a few novels use both first person and third person narration. It's not all that common, but for the right novel,
it can work.
For instance, Sophie Hannah's "Culver Valley" crime series has a first-person narrator for each story, along with the third-person narration from the detective Simon Waterhouse, who appears in all the books.
It's easy to follow who's narrating (because of the shift in
perspective) and it also provides a distancing effect between the reader and the already rather closed-off Simon.
So should you use this technique for your novel?
It's worth thinking about:
- How
conventional (or not!) do you want your novel to be? Blending third and first person is a more unusual choice ... you may want to stand out, or you may want to stick to genre conventions.
- Does it make sense in your story to have a mix of first and third person narration? (E.g. maybe your story is split across different time periods, or like Sophie Hannah's work, you have a series with some recurring
characters and some one-off characters.)
- Are there any other books in your genre that have a first/third split like this? (If not, it may be a bit too unusual as a choice ... though there's nothing stopping you trying it out!)
- What sort of balance between first and third person suits your novel? For instance, maybe
you want to write a novel that's mostly third person, with a character narrating shorter first-person interludes.
Another – even more unusual! – option is to have characters who sometimes narrate their story in the first person and sometimes in the third person. I'm halfway through reading The Female Man by Joanna Russ, and that uses this technique ... it's an
interesting reading experience, though (deliberately) hard to follow in places.
Point of view can be a great place to experiment in your writing. You might try reworking a scene in the third person to be in the first person instead, and see whether it feels easier or harder to write ... and whether it feels like a good fit for your characters, story, and genre.
Happy writing,
Ali
P.S. Want to get 30,000 words (or more!) written in the next six weeks? I've still got space in my novel writers' group:
details here, if you'd like to join us!
Six Week Novel Writers' Group Details
